Marty Andrews

artful code

Friday, October 28, 2005

Australian 8-Ball Championships - Goals

I'm a big fan of goal-setting. One of the most useful techniques you can use in goal-setting is to write them down and share them. It makes them more concrete, and you more accountable. So given that I'm heading off to the Australian 8-Ball Championships to represent Victoria in one weeks time, here's my goals for the tournament:

57.5%

I last played for Victoria in 1999, and managed to win 55% of my matches that year. Thats pretty good for a first year player, but you also spend a lot of time on the bench, and get more of a run against the weaker teams. This time round I want to raise the bar a bit, so I'm aiming for 57.5%.

The maximum amount of frames anyone can play in the teams event is 42. There's 3 per match against 7 opposition teams that we play twice each. I'm guessing that I'll play about 30 of them with rotation off the bench. That means I want to win 18 games of pool at the nationals.

Team Finals

The South Australian team is a clear favourite at the nationals, having won the last 6 consecutive championships. Then Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland are ranked quite closely together. This year we want to make the final and give ourselves the opportunity of knocking off the South Australians.

Last 32

In recent times, the national singles title has been opened to anyone who represents their state (it used to be only played by the state champions). My goal for this knockout tournament is to make the last 32. To some extent, this is a stretch target for me, but it depends heavily on what names are pulled out of a hat to play against me.

Hit the road, Jack

This one's personal. When I was a young up-and-comer playing pool, I went searching for a coach, and eventually spent a lot of my time being groomed by one of the most decorated player's Australia has ever had - Jack Halligan. He took me from being yet another pub pool player to bordering on state team selection. Since that time, he has moved to Queensland, and this year is the captain of their state team. If the opportunity arises, I'd love to beat him in a match at the nationals.